Let’s see, I have already installed more RAM, a new modem, and removed the motherboard just to see if I could. So how hard is installing a CD-RW and then getting it to work correctly?
Can I still use my Zip-100 WITH the CD-RW? What’s the deal with the master vs. slave issue? Is configuring everything complex?
Last question: I talked to some boy genius at, um, Best Buy, and he said that my trying to add a new hard drive would be beyond my ability, as configuring the drive is quite technical. Correct or no?
Installing that drive into your computer relies on quite a few different things. First is how many devices that your motherboard can handle plus how many you have already. I think most mobos can handle about four (don’t include your 3 1/2 floppy). So if you already have a second hard drive you may not have any room for it. Other then that they process is very easy. It is like reading a map just make sure that all your connectins are set up right and bam, simple. I hope this is helpful.
An external CD-RW is a piece o’ cake; if you don’t mind a piece of hardware sitting on your desk, it just plugs into a USB port and off you go. (more or less…I still have some issues with mine, like the fact that Windows Explorer doesn’t recognize it).
I’ve installed a few internal (IDE) CD-RW drives, and few things relating to a 'puter could be easier. (Hell, RAM’s not even easy any more…)
In my experience, the CD-RW installs initially like a second CD-ROM (assuming you’re keeping the one you had). As Snotfist said, most newer motherboards have two IDE interface channels, each capable of handling two IDE drives. The configuration I prefer has the main hard drive (C:) installed as the “master” on the primary channel and the CD-ROM drive as the “master” on the secondary channel. Given that, I’d install the CD-RW as the “slave” drive on the secondary channel. (You can set a CD drive as a “slave” device by moving a jumper on the back of the drive.) If you’ve been running a CD-ROM drive all along, the system will generally recognize the new CD-RW drive AS ANOTHER CD-ROM DRIVE, and assign it a drive designation, like “E:.” It will immediately and automatically function as a second CD-ROM drive.
Getting the CD-RW to behave as a recording device requires loading the drivers and other software that comes with the drive. I’ve used “NERO Burning ROM” and it’s just a matter of dropping the CD-ROM into either drive and following instructions.
Adding a second hard drive is almost as easy physically, although it generally requires some fairly sophisticated partitioning and formatting. Also, from the way you describe things, you may be running out of IDE channels.
My HP CD-RW drive was the easiest piece of hardware to install I have ever seen in my entire life. It was incredible - you plug it into the IDE cable, select master or slave, boot the PC with the driver CD in the drive, and it auto-detected itself, auto-installed it’s drivers, and auto-installed all of it’s application software. One, single boot, and it was ready to go. I was floored.
As Anthracite said, HP CD-RW’s are extremelly easy to install. I have an internal one thats about 2 years old and I knew very little about computers before I installed it. All I did was take the slave connection from the CD-ROM cord, plug it in, select the slave jumper, plugged in the power supply, booted up, and it installed automatically; it took about 15-20minutes total.
I got my brother-in-law a CD-RW drive for the holidays, and we installed it on my sister’s computer with few problems (though it took a bit of figuring). If you can pull the motherboard, you should be fine. Note that the instruction booklet we had was very cryptic and obviously written by someone for whom English was not his or her first language (on the other hand, I got the super-bargain CD-RW, so I’m not surprised that a minimum of effort was spent on documentation).
The computer we installed it on was a half-tower with one hard drive, a CD-ROM, and a Zip Drive. We added the CD-RW.
One thing (sort of obvious, but you don’t want to miss it) is whether there is a physical spot to mount the CD-RW. Because the computer was a half tower configuration, there was ample room, but a normal desktop (particularly one with a Zip already installed) might not have space for the CD-RW.
We had two IDE cables (these are the ones already plugged into the backs of the hard drive, CD-ROM and Zip), each of which had two plugs on the end of them. Ultimately, we wanted each of these cables to connect to two devices, and on each cable one device to be jumpered as a master and one as a slave. You should leave the hard drive on the cable it is already on (though we changed plugs), and have the other device on that cable jumpered as slave. On the other cable, connect the two other devices to the other cable, one as master, one as slave. We also had to swap one of the original cables (which was a bit short) for the one that came with the CD-RW.
When we turned the computer on, it recognized the CD-RW and immediately looked for a driver for it. One small problem that we had was that when we installed the CD-RW, the computer would not recognize the Zip. After some scratching our heads and hacking around, we found that the cable on the back of the Zip was not plugged in fully, and when we pushed it in and booted the computer again, the Zip appeared just fine.